Release Day Picks: October 14th New Album Highlights

Each week Release Day Picks profiles new LPs and EPs Team JamBase will be checking out on release day Friday. This week we highlight new albums by , Conor Oberst, T Sisters, Vulfpeck and a tribute to Jerry Garcia. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

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WOLF! – 1-800-WOLF!

The Scoop: While he’s best known at the moment for being a core member of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, guitarist and Jeremy Sisto lookalike, Scott Metzger, releases his second studio album under the WOLF! moniker this week. While WOLF! tends to feel like an understated project due to Metzger’s heavy touring demands with JRAD and the low key feel of gigs at places like Hometown BBQ in Red Hook, the music is anything but. Performing with a simple bass (Jon Shaw) and drums (Taylor Floreth) rhythm section, the trio grooves mercilessly in a variety of styles all of which feel familiar in the broader sense, but entirely fresh in the jam band scene. WOLF! specializes in rockabilly blues, country rock, and soul but with cutting tones and an aversion to repetition, the music is captivating and propulsive. Have a listen to “Pork ‘n Slaw” off the new record:

Label: Royal Potato Family

Producer: Self-Produced with Marco Benevento

Number Of Tracks: 13

Tracklist:

1. Pork ’n Slaw
2. Tomahawk Chop
3. You Are No Longer My Friend, My Friend
4. Furry Freedom
5. Whiskey Mister
6. Tomatillo Verde
7. Slow Stuff
8. Bohemian Grove
9. Oaxaca Ox
10. Get In The Van
11. Denim Love Affair
12. Mr. Majestique
13. All Dressed Up (Nowhere To Go)

Stream / Download / Limited Blue Vinyl, CD and Digital

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Conor Oberst – Ruminations

The Scoop: Ruminations finds Conor Oberst doing something that he’s never done before – release a true solo album under his own name without a backing band. This past winter Oberst retreated to his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska managing to record the raw, stripped-down record in a 48 hour period. The 11-tracks find Oberst at arguably his most raw and vulnerable. Accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, harmonica and piano, Oberst offers up deeply personal songs inspired in part by a a serious health scare involving a cyst on his brain. The record also comes across as a spiritual cousin to another album named after Oberst home state – Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska – with its bleak starkness and emotionally powerful songs. Check out this recently recorded live performance of the album’s lead track “Tachycardia” that Oberst did for Minneapolis radio station The Current”:

Label: Nonesuch Records

Producer: Conor Oberst

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 37:57

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Tachycardia
2. Barbary Coast (Later)
3. Gossamer Thin
4. Counting Sheep
5. Mamah Borthwick (A Sketch)
6. The Rain Follows the Plow
7. A Little Uncanny
8. Next of Kin
9. You All Loved Him Once
10. Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out

Stream / Download / CD/LP

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T Sisters – T Sisters

The Scoop: Siblings Chloe, Erika and Rachel Tietjen follow-up to their 2014 debut Kindred Lines with nine new originals and a cover of Foy Vance’s “Make It Rain.” The instrumentation was live tracked at John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco by the sisters with their touring band mates Steve Height, Andrew Allen Fahlander and Marlon Aldana at at Barefoot Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Engineered by Cian Riordan, vocals were laid down at Barefoot Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Here’s the Oakland-based trio’s take on the single “Sonnet #4”:

Label: Three-Headed Sounds

Producer: T Sisters, Cian Riordan

Number Of Tracks: 10

Guest Musicians: Steve Height, Andrew Allen Fahlander, Marlon Aldana, Anton Patzner, Jan Purat, Lewis Patzner, Gianni Staiano, Taylor Brown

Tracklist:

1. Come Back Down
2. Shadoop
3. Fight Song
4. Sticks And Stones
5. So It Goes
6. The Road
7. Make It Rain
8. Thief
9. Sonnet #4
10. I Have A Hammer

Stream / Download / CD/LP

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Various Artists – Dear Jerry: Celebrating The Music Of Jerry Garcia

The Scoop: Being issued today in conjunction with a DVD, the Dear Jerry all-start tribute concert for Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia took place on May 14, 2015 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. The concert featured performances from a number of musicians including Dead members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart and Phil Lesh. On stage appearances chosen for the release include Phil Lesh & Communion, Billy & The Kids, Allen Toussaint, moe., the Disco Biscuits, Widespread Panic, Eric Church, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Frampton, David Grisman, Jorma Kaukonen, Los Lobos, Buddy Miller, O.A.R., Grace Potter, Trampled By Turtles and Yonder Mountain String Band. Watch Bob Weir lead the ensemble featuring musical director Don Was on “Touch Of Grey”:

Label: Rounder Records

Producer: XXX

Number Of Tracks: 21

Running Time: 2:25:13

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. The Wheel / Uncle John’s Band – Phil Lesh & Communion
2. Get Out Of My Life Woman – Allen Toussaint w/Bill Kreutzmann
3. Shady Grove – David Grisman
4. I’m A Road Runner – Peter Frampton w/Bill Kreutzmann
5. Deal – Buddy Miller
6. Sugaree – Jorma Kaukonen
7. The Harder They Come – Jimmy Cliff, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann
8. Fire On The Mountain – Jimmy Cliff, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann
9. Help On The Way/Slipknot/Franklin’s Tower – Billy & The Kids
10. Scarlett Begonias / I Know You Rider – The Disco Biscuits, Billy & The Kids
11. Loser – moe.
12. St. Stephen – O.A.R.
13. Bertha – Los Lobos, Bob Weir
14. Brown-Eyed Woman – Trampled By Turtles
15. Shakedown Street – Yonder Mountain String Band
16. Days Between Bob Weir
17. Friend Of The Devil – Bob Weir & Grace Potter
18. Tennessee Jed – Eric Church w/Bill Kreutzmann
19. Morning Dew – Widespread Panic
20. Touch of Grey – Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann
21. Ripple – Full Ensemble

Stream / Download / CD/LP

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Vulfpeck – The Beautiful Game (Releases Monday, October 17)

The Scoop: Vulfpeck has shown over the past few years they don’t play the rules of the music industry establishment. So it’s only fitting Michigan funk quartet Vulfpeck will release their latest studio album, The Beautiful Game this coming Monday instead of on a Friday. In typical Vulfpeck fashion the band has enlisted many collaborators for the LP. Past collaborators who appear on The Beautiful Game are Antwaun Stanley, Joey Dosik and Christine Hucal. The album also features contributions from Vulfpeck family newcomers Laura Mace, Bethanni Grecynski, Jamire Williams, Michael Winograd, Pegasus Warning, Adam Levy and Rich Hinman. Vulfpeck also mentions Cory Wong serves as “this album’s Billy Preston.” So far, the band has played few of the 10 tracks in concert. Check out the single “Dean Town”:

Label: Vulf Records

Producer: Vulfpeck

Number Of Tracks: 10

Guest Musicians: Antwaun Stanley, Joey Dosik , Christine Hucal, Laura Mace, Bathanni Grecynski, Jamire Williams, Michael Winograd, Pegasus Warning, Adam Levy, Rich Hinman, Cory Wong

Tracklist:

1. The Sweet Science
2. Animal Spirits
3. Dean Town
4. Conscious Club
5. El Chepe
6. 1 For 1, DiMaggio
7. Daddy, He Got A Tesla
8. Margery, My First Car
9. Aunt Leslie
10. Cory Wong

Download / CD/LP

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Compiled by Jeffrey Greenblatt, Ryan Dembinsky, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein.